Review: ‘New Girl’ – ‘Coach’

A review of tonight’s “New Girl” coming up just as soon as I throw pizza at seagulls…

In the larger world of “New Girl,” “Coach” was most notable for the eponymous return of Damon Wayans Jr., who made a strong impression in the pilot episode before he had to return to his home planet of “Happy Endings.” When I heard Wayans was coming back for a bit, I was curious about a bunch of things: 1)Would there be any tension with Winston, whose return from Latvia forced him out of the loft? 2)Related to that, would having another jock-adjacent character force the writers to give Winston something to do other than being an insane person? 3)Given that Coach was, like the other guys, a fairly one-note (if funny) character in the pilot, how would he fit into a series where Nick and Schmidt have had two-plus seasons of shadings added?

The answers, as it turned out, were 1)No, Coach did not seem troubled about getting bounced from the loft, and the only roommate he had an issue with was Jess, in that he had no memory of the two weeks they both lived there; 2)Yes, Coach did mock Winston repeatedly until Winston finally remembered that, oh, yeah, he was a good enough athlete to play basketball professionally (albeit in Latvia); and 3)Coach didn’t spend as much time yelling as in the pilot, but he was definitely a much broader character than the two guys with whom he initially appeared, and at least for this episode less funny than the guy he replaced.

But we’ll get back to Coach in a moment, because much as I enjoy Damon Wayans the younger, I have to first sing the praises of the episode’s best guest star: Taye Diggs.(*)

Diggs’ career first took off when he was in professionally handsome mode in “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” and though he’s done more multi-faceted roles over the years (including a long stint on “Private Practice”), those projects usually acknowledge at some point what he looks like and how the ladies respond to that. His appearance here as Artie the dreamy coffee shop owner was a spot-on, hilarious parody of his innate Taye Diggs-iness, with Diggs dropping his voice just a half-octave lower, being receptive to every mood and need of Jess’s, and then taking it too far by climbing into her bed naked and demonstrating his flexibility (and also moving his leg like a horse’s, a horrifying, hilarious image). You can’t have Diggs lampooning himself like this all the time, which is why I would hesitate before demanding an Artie spin-off, but that subplot was a delight, and was the best “New Girl” use of a guest star since the show made me begrudgingly come to like Dermot Mulroney. (It was also a funny Jess story, as she kept telling Cece all the strange things she found attractive about Artie, like his phone number: “It has, like, a lot of fours in it, you know what I mean?”)

But getting back to Coach’s return, it was a big, sloppy story about a big, sloppy night for the guys. Some of the jokes worked very well, like Winston trying to spend all the Bunny Money (loved that the pants he bought Nick were tear-away) or Nick and Schmidt being incredibly drunk and hostile with one another (great work from Jake Johnson and Max Greenfield here), or even Schmidt’s weird interpretation of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” (Though it was both a rehash of Winston’s “Truman Show” confusion last week and pretty much every joke about Barney discussing ’80s movies on “How I Met Your Mother.”) But the parts built around Coach and how the guys acted around him didn’t really mesh, in part because of how thin Coach himself felt compared to the others. (Hopefully, he gets more fleshed-out while he sticks around.)

And I’m still not sure the show has figured out exactly what it’s doing with Nick and Jess as a couple. It’s fine to have them question their compatibility, especially early on in the relationship – conflict can fuel comedy, after all – but I came into this season looking forward to what the show did with these two, and at the moment it feels like they should probably break up for their own good (or, at least, for Jess’s own good). There’s usually a grand gesture and reconciliation at the end of the episode – here with them dumping an unconscious and naked Artie in the elevator after Nick has finally called Jess his girlfriend – but it’s been fairly awkward so far.

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Seeing Damon Wayans, Jr. just made me miss Happy Endings all the much more.

On a bright note Brooklyn 99 continues to be the funniest thing on TV.

By: Joyeful

11.06.2013 @ 3:04 AM

Nick’s knockout of Artie should go down as one of the best punches in sitcom history.

By: madmeme

11.06.2013 @ 5:16 AM

Yes, the punch was great – but how did Nick know Artie’s name (he said it before anyone had mentioned it)? Continuity error – or was Artie supposed to actually be known by Nick?

By: sepinwall

11.06.2013 @ 8:49 PM

Artie’s coffee shop is in the neighborhood. Jess goes there all the time. Presumably Nick does as well, as both a local and Jess’s boyfriend.

By: Mike

11.06.2013 @ 3:09 AM

Alan I agree. 20 minutes of uncomfortable conflict with Jess and Nick and then 2 minutes of reconciliation has been done at this point. I hope they either commit to it and let it grow or move on

By: sid

11.06.2013 @ 3:21 AM

What happens when two white guys and two “jock adjacent characters” walk into a police station?

By: MSN

11.06.2013 @ 3:32 AM

Totally agree re: Nick and Jess. Liz Meriwether is quick to stress that Nick is bad at life, but the one thing that’s never been in doubt is how important Jess is to him, which really made it easy to root for him to get the girl in spite of his immaturity last season. Unfortunately, they seem to have done a good job of slowly tearing that sympathy down this season. I didn’t expect moonlight and roses 24/7, but I didn’t expect to still be hashing out the relationship status issue 7 episodes in (BTW, what was the point of the “old lady”/”old man” talk of “Nerd”).

On another note, give Winston ALL OF THE STORYLINES. Lamorne Morris is killing it this season.

By: Tyler

11.06.2013 @ 3:42 AM

Do you think there is anyway that Damon Wayans Jr. stays on has a regular cast member, or frequent guest star??

By: BrettPoker

11.06.2013 @ 7:05 AM

I was wondering this too. I thought his appearance was a one shot deal, but Alan seems to be suggesting that we’ll get to see more of him.

Once again Nick Miller is one of the funniest characters on TV. “This is a coin flip.”

By: JL

11.06.2013 @ 5:25 AM

Alan, I can’t quite get the meaning of this sentence:

Coach didn’t spend as much time yelling as in the pilot, but he was definitely a much broader character than the two guys with whom he initially appeared, and at least for this episode less funny than the guy he replaced.

So Coach is less funny than…who? He was replaced. And he was broader than Schmidt and Nick? Can you clarify?

By: Cal

11.06.2013 @ 6:12 AM

I assume Alan meant that Coach was less funny than Winston, less funny than the guy who replaced him.

By: JB

11.06.2013 @ 6:17 AM

Coach was less funny than Winston, who replaced him after the pilot. And he was broader than Schmidt and Nick.

By: TJ

11.06.2013 @ 7:00 AM

I guess I have a different view on things. I thought in one episode, they gave a lot more depth to Coach than they have done with Winston over multiple seasons. In terms of depth, I thought they told us a story about Coach – about how he reacted poorly to the breakup, about his emotions as it pertained to that, and so forth.

Now, were the jokes funny? Eh. The whole “her new bf is a police officer” thing was sort of dumb and played out. I also didn’t really care for Winston in this episode to the extent that … well … what did he do? He’s basically there for no real good reason.

I thought when he called the loft meeting a few episodes back that it offered them some opportunity to renew some character development focus on Winston, but really, he’s … well … he’s really nothing right now. There’s nothing that we can specifically latch onto and say, “That’s Winston”. In one episode, they did, IMO, a lot more for Coach.

I don’t see any reason why they SHOULD keep Coach around, as he’ll simply overshadow Winston. They may, and I’ll enjoy it, but I don’t think they should do it.

Side note: What would be sort of funny, for me, is if they brought in Eliza Coupe as the ex.

By: Dezbot

11.06.2013 @ 3:56 PM

That would be funny for me, too.

By: Biddle

11.06.2013 @ 11:39 AM

I like awkward, and I like that Nick and Jess are so desperate to make this work that they sweep things under the rug and use a grand gesture to fix it. Like it or not, it’s real. To the person who complained about it being 7 episodes in and they’re still hashing out the relationship status. This is Nick Miller, he lost his last long term girlfriend because he can’t communicate. If they were just being portrayed as a functional couple that would negate everything we’ve learned about this lovable idiot so far.

Logic dictates that these two people don’t belong together, but the chemistry is undeniable They feel it and they want to make it work, and they’ll continue making concessions and slamming square pegs into round holes until it does work or it implodes on them. It’s messy and awkward and it should be. I think they’re hilarious together whether they’re being lovey dovey or reacting stupidly to something about the other person that they chose to ignore thus far.

The Nick/Jess stuff is my favourite part of this show, these two actors could read the news together and I’d be entertained. Schmidt’s story weighs on me a little heavier, but I can’t fault the writers for saying “This is a decent guy who made a bad decision based on his life experience thus far”. It’s good that he’s paying for it, and him contradicting his grand exodus to the apartment across the hall only to be in the old apartment constantly is a Schmidt thing to do. I’d like to see Coach move into that apartment with him, and eventually have Scmidt move back “home”. Allowing coach to still live there and make frequent appearances., along the lines of CeeCee. Speaking of which a Coach/CeeCee hookup has all kinds of potential in my mind.

By: Jaxemer11

11.07.2013 @ 2:23 AM

Amen … I hope they don’t do anything dumb like break them up so soon. They do need to show Nick having some progress though. He always reverts to his extremely immature self by the beginning of the next episode. I like immature Nick, but he needs to show some ability to learn some lessons.

By: Dezbot

11.06.2013 @ 4:00 PM

Taye Diggs’ horse-stomp was the best thing in the episode. I wonder if he improvised that, or if it was in the script. I haven’t laughed that hard at this show since last season!

By: Col Bat Guano

11.06.2013 @ 7:18 PM

While I loved the horse stomp, the look on Nick’s face as he turned from Coach to Jess after making the cake comment was my favorite thing.

By: garyc

11.08.2013 @ 12:22 AM

It creeped me out.

By: Buster

11.06.2013 @ 4:53 PM

New Girl has consistently been my favourite comedy but this season has been boring and not that funny. I really hope that it picks up soon

By: F. Spellman

11.06.2013 @ 8:07 PM

I’m sure this will sound like a very shallow observation but I think it’s to this show’s credit that it cast a woman way hotter than Zooey as her best friend. A lot of shows would make damn sure the leading lady was the hottest. It shows a confidence in herself and in her show that Zooey is willing to be overshadowed every week when Cece enters and I for one go “dayum”

By: ed w

11.06.2013 @ 11:33 PM

Yes compare this to Mindy Project where the producers, one of which I would assume is Mindy, have removed any real competition. The only other women on the show now are one too old and one too young. So it’s just Mindy with an endless stream of attractive men. Talk about a vanity project.

By: Dave

11.07.2013 @ 12:02 AM

Yes. Mindy has become a vanity project … An adult needs to take over or it should be shut down…

By: Col Bat Guano

11.07.2013 @ 5:11 PM

I don’t know if it should be shut down, but someone needs to tell Mindy that she can’t just write up a list of hot actors her character can date for one episode and have that be the plot for the season.

By: toeach

11.08.2013 @ 4:30 AM

I’ll take Zooey Deschanel over Hannah Simone six times a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Not even close.

By: JB

11.06.2013 @ 8:53 PM

This was my last episode of the show. I gave it seven this season, which is more than I give most.

By: Ben

11.06.2013 @ 11:59 PM

Stuck in Park

By: Jaxemer11

11.07.2013 @ 2:19 AM

I think that I’m glad Lamorne Morris is a series regular rather than Damon Wayans Jr. It would have been difficult for Jake Johnson and Max Greenfield to become the characters they are if they were always having to compete with Coach. I really like Winston as a character, even if he doesn’t really have much of a consistent purpose.

By: Tassoula

11.12.2013 @ 6:07 AM

Funniest episode of the season, hands down. Loved the Artie bit and Cece coaching Jess through Nick’s missteps. And Jake Johnson’s facial expressions during the “will-he or won’t he go to the strip club?” conversation were hilarious.